Macon bus driver to be honored for role in averting attack

FRANKLIN — The Macon County bus driver credited with averting a plan to attack a school in June will be honored with a heroism award.

Alice Bradley, who intervened as two heavily armed suspects were headed toward a bus, will be presented with the National Association for Pupil Transportation's Heroism Award at the organization's annual conference Nov. 9 in Richmond, Virginia.

The award recognizes "appropriate acts of heroism demonstrated in the school transportation industry," specifically acts related to saving lives, according to the organization's website.

On June 5, Bradley was walking through the bus parking lot when the two suspects, who intended to shoot students and staff "if it was God's will," charged her, Macon County Sheriff Robert Holland said at the time.

She got away from them and went to her car, then drove toward the suspects as they were headed toward her bus, which was running. She had cranked the bus a few minutes earlier to let it warm up and had gone inside the school, not noticing when she did so that the suspects apparently had already been on it early that night and had left a pistol inside. Bradley drove toward the suspects as if she were going to run over them, causing them to head the other way, Holland said.

Bradley said the male suspect held a gun at her.

"Everybody says I was a hero, but I was scared to death," she said.

She said she is honored and surprised by the award, but doesn't feel like she deserved it.

"I think I was more mad than I was scared," Bradley said of her thought process at the time, imagining the two planning to shoot the schoolchildren.

Deputies arrived a few minutes later and took Adam Conley, 38, and Kathryn Jeter, 29, both of Franklin, into custody on multiple charges in connection with the planned attack.

"God had his hand in it, I know he did," Bradley said.

Principal of South Macon Elementary Tolly Bowles called the honor "tremendous."

"She's a good person; she was a quick thinker," he said.

Bradley has been a driver for the district for 25 years and plans to attend the conference in Virginia with her husband to receive the award.